The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-14
PAPER MACHE.

Description of It's Manufacture. and Some
of It's Numerous Uses.
The manufacture of papier mache
Qiterally, "chewed paper'D forms an
important branch of the paper indus
try. Who does not remember those
projectiles of orr school days which we
called ''spit-balls." and which when
thrown at a wall or ceiling adhered
thereto with tenacity? What was most
striking about these balls was their
extraordinary hardness after they be-
come thoroughly dry, this being the
more marked in proportion rs the chew
ing had been more perfect.
1t was through observing such hard
ness that the idea occurred to some one
to employ paper pulp in the manufact-
IRE of various objects. Yet the SUBJ
stance employed in the industry is not
mashed paper in the absolute sense
of the word, but is a paper converted
into soft cardboard by mechanical
processes.
In the manufacture of papier mache,
the raw material used is bluish-gray,
unsized, strong, fne-grained paper.
The sheets may be compared (white
ness, which is of no account, being ex-
cepteD to Annonay photographic paper.
Cotton forms the basis of it.
These sheets are pasted together by
Means or a fttyer Of 'dextrine Of starch,
applied with a steel spatula. When
the desired thickness has been obtained,
the mass is put into hydraulic press
that operates in highly heated drying
room. Under the immense pressure of
this apparatus there forms solid block,
which is as hard as lockwood or ebony,
and which is perfectly plane or has the
form of the mold in which the raw mate
rial, so ductile when moist and so hard
when dry, was compressed. 1t can be
nodded into any shape whatever, that
Of table legs. chair arms, rose-work,
holdings, etc.
This sort of wood, without pores, sap,
fbers and knots, is capable of being
worked with the saw, the gouge, the
rasp and the lathe. 1t can be polished,
if need be, although this operation is
reserved for the thick black varnish
that is applied to it in several coats
with an intervening stay of night in
very hot, air-heated drying room. When
it comes from the latter the varnish is
very hard, and is free from blisters and
cracks. 1t is possible that many of the
objects that are offered to us as being
finished with Japan or Chinese lacquer
are merely impregnated and covered
with a mixture of gum copal, bitumen,
4 hT-IT a1.br
pregnated with lamp-black and color
in certain proportions.
The baking is the important point.
When this operation has been too greatly
prolonged, the varnish scales off and
cracks; and when it has not been car
ried to a sufficient extent, the surface
remains sticky 1t is not necessary,
then, to exceed a certain temperature,
always higher than one hundred de-
grees.
This nodded and pressed paper can
be easily turned in the lathe, and made
into light and indestructible balls and
beads, or be fashioned into ink-stands,
caskets and cylinders.
1t is from this substance that are man.
ufactured all those bracelets of large
black beads studded with Scotch imita-
ton diamonds, all those necklaces, pins,
clasps and trinkets of all sorts that are
taken for pitch coal or some precious
wood. Again, those handsome brace
lets composed of semi-lucid and opaline
globules that seem to have been cut out
of stone formed of concentric layers,
like certain precious stones, are merely
of papier mache, cemented with white
varnish and coated with the same. So,
too. those beautiful nacreous. painted
and gilded trays. round tables, and
caskets that are known as Japanese
work are merely papier mache. The
japanese know but one kind of gliding,
while we have two-the dead and the
brilliant We have, likewise, a liquid
nacre taken from the scales of the white
bait that well initiates the white currant
and certain transparent berries. The
nacre is solidly inlaid by means of the
hydraulic press, and finally the surface
is finished with pumice stone in order to
make it perfectly even, and covered with
colorless Varnish of the first quality
Bulletin des Fa6rica4ats de Papier